7 Nov 2022 10:39 pm
Vegas » 07 Nov 2022, 3:32 pm » wrote: ↑ Oh man. Omh is going to go nuts over this thread. You forgot to mention our ancestors.
As for the OP, I believe you are half right. Of course, society goes on after we die. Yes, the land owns us, we don't own it. We are dependent on society and the land for our survival and even existence. This part, I agree. However, I don't see why this has to be a binary concept. That is either we are collectivists, or we are individuals. There is no reason why both cannot coexist. The very fact that we can make our own individual decisions, whether our faculty uses concrete or abstract knowledge to guide our decisions, is evidence of our individualism. In fact, though we are dependent on society and the land, we are still capable of **** up society and the land...which we do quite often. I don't see the contradiction between being dependent on society and the land vs us being free to think and act individually. Yes, we could never have individuality without society, but society cannot be a society without individuals.
it’s not a binary concept over the course of a lifetime, because life, like a movie, has many scenes. Some scenes you are the leading man, some your in a supporting role. Some scenes you are heroic, in others you are a tragic pathetic clown.
every day you make decisions that lean either toward collectivist or individualist. Did you have lunch by yourself, or seek out another person to sit and eat with? Did you turn in a final project without asking anyone else to look it over? Did you carpool? Every day there is a dozen decisions in which you might be more collectivist or individualist.
In terms of human evolution and survival, if everyone made the most extreme individualist decision every time, we all be dead within a month. If everyone made the most collectivist decision every time, we would live a very long time, and even colonize other planets eventually